VALDOSTA – What once was a small reading initiative in two Valdosta city schools has now grown into a dual-school district program for both Valdosta City Schools and now Lowndes County Schools.

Community members across Valdosta and Lowndes County visited schools early Friday morning to help grow the love of reading in young students.

Valdosta City Schools Assistant Finance Director Kiley Cashwell began the program within VCS schools as “Books for Christmas,” which was recently rebranded with the help of Leadership Lowndes Youth as “Pages of Possibilities.”

Cashwell was inspired after her first reading visit at Pinevale Elementary School and J.L. Lomax Elementary about nine years ago. As a previous teacher, Cashwell missed the classroom. She wished to do more for the young students instead of just visiting and reading to class a few times a year.

Now in the program’s eighth year of operation, students receive gift-wrapped books from volunteer readers to take home in hopes they will build an at-home library. Pages of Possibilities continues to grow even across both local school systems.

“We started the first year at Lomax and Pinevale eight years ago, and we did two or three grades. It has since grown. We [now] do pre-k through fifth at all five elementary schools so we [gift] about 3,000 books a year,” she said.

Leadership Lowndes Youth has established its own program this year with first-grade students at all elementary schools within Lowndes County Schools.

Cashwell said seeing the growth of the program is exciting especially with the number of volunteers.

“It’s exciting. It’s really grown into a lot more than I’ve ever anticipated. I don’t think I realized at first, the first couple of years, how it impacted the community too. The first couple of years I had to beg for readers. This year we have 222 classrooms, and they were full days before the deadline,” she said.

Some recurring readers Cashwell listed were members of the Valdosta Fire Department and Valdosta Police Department. City of Valdosta leaders like Mayor Scott James Matheson, Manager Richard Hardy, Assistant City Manager Catherine Ammons and Municipal Court Judge Jeremy Baker were present. Members from organizations such as Valdosta State University and Girls on the Run South Georgia participated this year.

The importance of having individuals visit with different backgrounds is to teach the students that adults outside of their school or district care about their future.

Assisting with their love for reading and making it fun also helps to improve the foundation of literacy in the students.

South Georgia Regional Library’s Youth Services Librarian Sara Kamppi delivered snacks and gift-wrapped books to a class of first-graders at Pinevale Elementary School.

The Pages of Possibilities will continue from Friday, Dec. 8, to Thursday, Dec. 14.

To learn more about the program or how you can help young readers build an at-home library please contact Valdosta City Schools Assistant Finance Director Kiley Cashwell at (229) 671-6054 or kcashwell@gocats.org.